MCM SCOTLAND - Glasgow

This weekend we're up in Glasgow, at one of our favourite shows.
I love Glasgow.
Hope to see some of you there.

Glasgow MCM.

For the first time in recorded history the Accent UK team was split across two Cons.
The A-Team (that's any team that includes me, and this time was with Jemma) were at the Glasgow MCM and the B-Team (which is any team that included Colin, and on this occasion included Gary Crutchley and our guest from Denmark Martin Flink) were at Thought Bubble.
Of course there was a competitive element to the whole thing, although I'll confess that I was doubtful of my chance to win. Added to the international guest there were two new books at Thought Bubble that I'd not managed to get hold of, WesterNoir 8 and Martin's The Lizard.
Still, I do love a challenge.
This year then saw us on the table next to Steve 'Timebomb' Tanner.
It's amazing that in his 10 years and our 15 this was actually the first time that this had happened.

We would get a chance to see the Sales Master in action.
He is quite impressive and soon we were both busy talking to customers and swapping cash for comics as is the traditional way of things.
Saturday was very busy and an improvement for us on last year which had been relatively quiet. The Lego figures drew in a lot of interest, but sadly it was mostly under 10 year olds and none of the comics that the characters they saw in Lego form were suitable.
A poor marketing strategy then.
There were, as always, plenty of Cosplayers to marvel at.
My particular favourites were...

Spike from Steampunk Giraffe and...

this from Coraline. Amazing.
A good day ended with a really enjoyable night at Babs (Kebab restaurant (thoroughly recommended) with Mikes Garley and Stott, Jemma and Jenika and Steve Tanner. Great food and great company.
Sunday, whilst starting slower, was another good day.
Did I beat the boys at Thought Bubble ?
Well ... not on total number of Comics sold.
But ... wait a minute ... they had two tables and I had only the one.
So if you take the sales per table, which seems only fair, then I won by a country mile 😂.
I'll leave you with this...

Stay tuned.

Meanwhile at the London MCM Con...

The post about our attendance at the next London MCM was a mistake on my part.
Accent UK will be at the London MCM event as always.
Next weekend though we will have tables at both Thought Bubble and Glasgow MCM events. The A-team will be at the Glasgow MCM and Colin, Gary and Martin Flink (on his first UK appearance) will be at Thought Bubble.
And then the week after I will be representing Accent UK a the Meanwhile event, you can find details about this new event here.

London MCM - Ouch.

Well, we've failed to get a table at the MCM in London this October.
It'll be the first we've missed for a very long time and a shame but we just didn't manage to get our order in in time. The tables had gone in 5 minutes.
It's great that there is so much creativity out there, with so much interest in selling work at Conventions and I sure it'll be a great event.
Let's hope we're luckier next year.

We are at the Glasgow MCM in a couple of weeks though, so not all bad.

Glasgow MCM.

Wrapped around a wonderful evening with Bob Layton (see below post) was the Glasgow MCM comic event.
Two days of Cosplayers, thousands of people and hopefully customers.
This was the first event for the WesterNoir trade paperback collection and I'd decided to just focus on that and left issue 5 and 6 at home, along with the Tales Of WesterNoir issues.
We also decided to use our suitcases on the tables to sell comics from.
To see if it worked or if it put people off.

It seemed to work pretty well and apart from the one person who was more interested in the suitcases than the comics inside them, it was pretty effective. Getting lots of positive feedback from customers and fellow comic creators.
We had a slow day on the Saturday but this was made up for by a very good Sunday.
The newer titles, the WesterNoir TPB and Colin's Moments of Adventure, selling far more than  other titles was a healthy sign.
We caught up with a lot of friends around the Comic Village and once again I was impressed by the quality of what was on offer.

I even sold a copy of WesterNoir to Hulk Hogan :o)
All in all it was a solid Con sales-wise. Down a little on previous years but good enough to go back to next year.

An evening with Bob Layton.

We've met Bob a few times over the last year or so. Chatting with him before the doors open at a number of the MCM events around the country.
He always been friendly and more than happy to spend his time chatting about comics, movies and well... life in general.
So, there we were in a hotel in Glasgow on Saturday night, having a beer before the restaurant booking for 8 was ready and there was Bob Layton.
He popped over the say 'Hi' and we asked him if he'd like to join us for tea.
'Sure', he said.
We walked him through 10 minutes of Glasgow rain to the Rotunda where we squeezed an additional customer around a nice round table and what followed was a wonderful night chatting with Bob.
I won't share details here but I go as far as saying it was both informative and educational... and a laugh.
He even joked with Gary Erskine about his lost luggage and how his lost had translated into more business for Gary.
What a nice bloke.

During the evening Bob also bantered with the staff in the restaurant, which I think is what won us a free round of drinks.
And then it was time to once again brave the weather and so we asked for the bill.
Bob proved himself to be as generous as he was good company and covered the bill himself.
This is the man who put the Iron into Iron Man ... well... he probably saved the character from being can cancelled many years ago... and was involved in a number of the marvel movies that we are all enjoying.
A wonderful evening.
ps. Bob's luggage turned up at 5.30pm on Sunday. Too late for the convention but at least he has all that fabulous original artwork back in his hands.